Building a program, and a new culture, at UVa.

It’s not easy rebuilding a culture.

“I make the joke that I’ve spoken to the Boys Club, the Girls Club, the Rotary Club, the Hair Club for Men, I’ve done all those things, from Rhode Island to Florida. But that’s necessary, I think, when there’s change,” said Mike London, the new football coach at the University of Virginia, fresh off a pair of playoff runs at I-AA Richmond.

From those playoff runs, including the 2008 I-AA national title, London inherits from his former mentor, Al Groh, a team picked by the writers at the 2010 ACC Football Kickoff to finish dead last in the six-team ACC Coastal, with the general consensus among the cognoscenti that UVa. might be fortunate to win three games in 2010.

“I don’t think I need to use that as a motivating factor for our team. We are what people think we are,” London said at the Kickoff. “All I’m worried about is what we think about ourselves and how we do on the field. So far what I think about my players – my thoughts are positive thoughts about where we are, what we’re doing. The season starts pretty soon, and we’ll talk again, I would assume, after the season is over.”

Link to story on TheNewDominion.com.